The five day training program aims to translate the success of Indian Plant Tissue Culture Sector in African countries through training of human resources and building their capacities in enhancing productivity by facilitating production and distribution of disease free and true to type tissue culture plants.

Welcoming the gathering, Dr. (Prof.) Balvinder Shukla, Vice Chancellor, Amity University Uttar Pradesh said that tissue culture has gained lots of importance with time and its application has benefited various biotechnological areas. Tissue culture has aided in improving the quality of agricultural crops. She emphasized that such training programs helps in acquiring knowledge and skills which will be further applied by the participants in their country. She emphasized upon creating entrepreneurial ecosystem. Dr. Shukla apprised that Amity has great presence in pan South African countries and from past 8 years, online degree programs are conducted,providing an opportunity to thousands of African students to complete higher education.

Duringthe occasion, Honorary Professorship was bestowed upon Dr Shiv Kant Shukla ,DGM, Biotech Consortium India Ltd, New Delhi (PI of Indo African Project) for his outstanding research contribution and extra ordinary achievements in the field of life sciences by Dr. Balvinder Shukla and Dr W. Selvamurthy,President, Amity Science technology and Innovation Technology.

Accepting the professorship, Dr. Shiv Kant Shukla expressed his gratitude and said that this recognition shall aid me in contributing more towards biotechnology.Briefing about the program, Dr Shukla apprised that BCIL has successfully completed training of 109 candidates in 5 batches during the last one year. The various training modules were designed in such a way that all the candidates received ample hands on training along with lectures on various topics by eminent experts in the concerned field(s). He stressed upon learning the quality management system in tissue culture. He informed the participants that further assistance will be provided even after the training program so that productivity can be enhanced in a better way.

Inaugurating the programme, Dr V. K. Baranwal, Professor, Plant Pathology Department,Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) talked about certification and virus indexing in micro propagated crops. He shared that plant virus research has been more than 100 years old. Around 1500 viruses were found on field and horticulture crops. He mentioned that viral and virus like pathogens has been perpetuated through micro propagation and vegetative propagation has been exploited mostly in apple, banana, citrus, grapevine, potato, sweet potato andornamentals. Highlighting the major issues in production of vegetative propagated crops, Dr. Baranwal added that virus incidence is high due to long field exposure, making it often difficult to get healthy clonal material. Virus incidence leads to reduction in yield and quality. He pointed that banana has been the best example for tissue culture experiment in India.

The training programme is attended by more than 30 participants from 09 African countries.